'Detective Pikachu' Is Pokémon's New Game/Fever Dream

Today, The Pokémon Company debuted the trailer for a new game on
Nintendo’s 3DS, Detective Pikachu. This being the “Year of Pokémon,” aka the 20th anniversary of the franchise, there are a number of new Poké-related games coming out including Pokken Tournament for Wii U and Pokémon Go for mobile. Detective Pikachu rounds out the group with a 3DS release. The full title is actually Great Detective Pikachu: The Birth of a New Duo, because of course it is.

Luckily for me, I bugged the offices of The Pokémon Company years ago so I would be able to discover when they were finally making a fully-fledged console Pokémon RPG. As such, I was able to capture the creation process for Detective Pikachu. Here’s a transcript of the unfiltered audio below:

“Alright, it’s the 20th anniversary of Pokémon, we should probably release a new game besides the fighting one and the phone one.”

“A new pair of 3DS games continuing the series?”

“Eh, that’s kind of a lot of work.”

“The console Pokémon RPG that fans have wanted for years?

*audible laughter from both*

“Oh man, I’m crying. You’re too funny."

“Can you imagine? Anyway, let’s do the 3DS.”

“Alright, well it should probably star Pikachu, because whatever this is, I only want to animate like six Pokémon max, and we already have a trillion models for him.”

“Obviously it was going to star Pikachu. But doing what?”

“Can it be hat-related? People love Pikachu in hats.”

“Great call. Chef Pikachu? You bake meals with him using the 3DS screens?”

“Not bad. But what about Pirate Pikachu? You sail the seas and find buried treasure.”

“I mean he is a detective now, makes sense. I’ll make some calls. What are we going to name this thing anyway?”

“Detective Pikachu.”

“Too plain. Need like six more words and a subtitle.”

“Great Detective Pikachu: The Birth of a New Duo.”

“God, you’re a genius.”

And lo and behold, Detective Pikachu was born. Sorry, I mean Great Detective Pikachu: The Birth of a New Duo. The game is coming out in Japan next week, and there’s no word on when it might come to the West. But Pokémon products usually do, so I would expect an announcement about that soon enough.

Watch the trailer below, and don’t get mad about my fictional conversation above.